Cultural damage and reparation of victims in the Colombian armed conflict. The case of the black peasant community of San Cristóbal (Montes de María – Colombia)

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the cultural damage caused by the armed conflict in the black peasant community of San Cristóbal, in Montes de María, one of the regions most affected by the prolonged conflict in Colombia. A conceptual and methodological framework is proposed to address, from a interdisciplinary scope, culture in victim reparation processes, based on the systematization of the conflict effects. Thus, by synthetizing community knowledge and experience on how cultural assets and practices have been affected by violence, capability and asset planning approaches are applied to discuss how the cultural dimension of development should be incorporated into collective reparation measures that are being executed by the Colombian State. It was found that the action of armed groups affected popular feats, traditional medicine, agriculture and community social capital in the broad sense. Hence, the reparation actions that are built under the state initiative consider the cultural dimension, for which they must directly involve the affected community and recover the social capital associated with traditional festivals, where multiple oral traditions and expressions, music, dance and communication were severely damaged for more than two decades of armed disputes in the area.

KEYWORDS:

• Armed conflictc
• cultural damage
• cultural dimension of development
• rural development
• capabilities
• cultural assets

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful with Rosaura Arrieta Flórez (Universidad de Cartagena), Carlos del Cairo Silva and Johana Herrera Arango (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), and with Carmen Ana Cásseres, Joy Helena González, Augusto Otero Herazo and Irina Junieles Acosta for many helpful discussions and comments. They are also especially grateful for the support received from the Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar in carrying out this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Seven of these municipalities are located in the Department of Bolívar and eight in the Department of Sucre. In Bolívar these are: San Juan Nepomuceno, Carmen de Bolívar, San Jacinto, Zambrano, El Guamo, Marialabaja and Córdoba. In Sucre: Ovejas, Los Palmitos, Morroa, Colosó, Chalán, Toluviejo, San Onofre and San Antonio de Palmito.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Universidad Tecnologica de Bolivar under grant of Internal Research Call-2016.